Gardening and Planting
Kat Ford
Gardens in the Renaissance were seen as many things. They were used as a family’s source of food or income; they were used to grow remedies and ingredients. Gardens could also be small for a single family home, or span many acres and serve as a source of income. Due to family owned gardens and orchards being so common, there was a vast market for pamphlet-sized gardening handbooks to be found for public use.
Unlike Herbals, these handbooks were targeted toward those with less scholarly intentions and more focus on the cultivating of plants for food and household use, and therefore are more well-known. Gardening books such as The Gardener’s Labyrinth include practical ways to identify and gather plants and herbs for best use, for example "the best and worthiest roots of herbs, for the most part, [are] to be gathered in apt places when the leave are beginning to fall off, and the fruits or seeds are already shed" (Hill 57). However, practical use and gathering instruction were not exclusive to just these publicly available copies; the proper ways of collecting and preserving ingredients can also be found in scholarly publications such as Culpeper’s The English Physician. Here as well, the author instructs the reader on practices like the best time to gather flowers, "when the sun shines on them, for if they wet they will not keep" (Culpeper App. 2) and to that bark of trees "are best gathered in the spring because they come off easier" (Culpeper Appendix. 5).
Information about garden organization is not wasted on the scholarly, due to the existence of herb gardens and conservatories, used for the study and observation of plants. In gardens such as these, there was a lot of concern about the placement of plants. Authors of herbals and instructional gardening handbooks alike included information about the position of plants in relation to others and the relation of their health and growth, as written in The Garden of Eden, "particular rules how to advance [plants] Nature and growth as well as in seeds and herbs as the secret ordering of plants and trees" (Plat Sig. A2v).
Further observation into the growth of plants from the gardening handbooks in proximity to others branched off into the early practice of crossing genetics. Grafting was also an interest of many scientists and scholars, the practice being a makeshift splice of two different plants in the hopes of creating something new, and publications like A New Orchard and Garden offered information on the practice along with planting and enriching the soil. Practices like grafting were not always seen in good light, as it could be considered against nature to change it.
Even though many noblemen had the means to educate themselves in botany through expensive herbal publications or tutors, not every nobleman’s garden had intellectual or practical themes. For nobles, the garden was more of a statement piece than a place of study, and far from a means of income. In this case, gardeners would be hired to tend and sculpt the land and nature around them to his employer’s liking. Even though much of a plant’s potential use was lost due to how it appears, there was still a system in place. Gardening books such as The Gardener’s Labyrinth contained not only methods on gathering and using plants, but also how to apply "diverse herbs, knots, and mazes cunningly handled for the beautifying of Gardens" (Hill 1). The practice of keeping orchards in this way is also praised for being "most excellent, and agreeing with nature" (Harward 54) as it appeals to the senses in the way nature is supposed to, to the raw beauty of nature, "what can your eye desire to see, your ears to hear, your mouth to taste, your nose to smell, that is not to be had in an orchard. With abundance and variety? Coloring not only the earth, but the eye, and sweetening every breath and spirit." (Harward 54).
Unlike Herbals, these handbooks were targeted toward those with less scholarly intentions and more focus on the cultivating of plants for food and household use, and therefore are more well-known. Gardening books such as The Gardener’s Labyrinth include practical ways to identify and gather plants and herbs for best use, for example "the best and worthiest roots of herbs, for the most part, [are] to be gathered in apt places when the leave are beginning to fall off, and the fruits or seeds are already shed" (Hill 57). However, practical use and gathering instruction were not exclusive to just these publicly available copies; the proper ways of collecting and preserving ingredients can also be found in scholarly publications such as Culpeper’s The English Physician. Here as well, the author instructs the reader on practices like the best time to gather flowers, "when the sun shines on them, for if they wet they will not keep" (Culpeper App. 2) and to that bark of trees "are best gathered in the spring because they come off easier" (Culpeper Appendix. 5).
Information about garden organization is not wasted on the scholarly, due to the existence of herb gardens and conservatories, used for the study and observation of plants. In gardens such as these, there was a lot of concern about the placement of plants. Authors of herbals and instructional gardening handbooks alike included information about the position of plants in relation to others and the relation of their health and growth, as written in The Garden of Eden, "particular rules how to advance [plants] Nature and growth as well as in seeds and herbs as the secret ordering of plants and trees" (Plat Sig. A2v).
Further observation into the growth of plants from the gardening handbooks in proximity to others branched off into the early practice of crossing genetics. Grafting was also an interest of many scientists and scholars, the practice being a makeshift splice of two different plants in the hopes of creating something new, and publications like A New Orchard and Garden offered information on the practice along with planting and enriching the soil. Practices like grafting were not always seen in good light, as it could be considered against nature to change it.
Even though many noblemen had the means to educate themselves in botany through expensive herbal publications or tutors, not every nobleman’s garden had intellectual or practical themes. For nobles, the garden was more of a statement piece than a place of study, and far from a means of income. In this case, gardeners would be hired to tend and sculpt the land and nature around them to his employer’s liking. Even though much of a plant’s potential use was lost due to how it appears, there was still a system in place. Gardening books such as The Gardener’s Labyrinth contained not only methods on gathering and using plants, but also how to apply "diverse herbs, knots, and mazes cunningly handled for the beautifying of Gardens" (Hill 1). The practice of keeping orchards in this way is also praised for being "most excellent, and agreeing with nature" (Harward 54) as it appeals to the senses in the way nature is supposed to, to the raw beauty of nature, "what can your eye desire to see, your ears to hear, your mouth to taste, your nose to smell, that is not to be had in an orchard. With abundance and variety? Coloring not only the earth, but the eye, and sweetening every breath and spirit." (Harward 54).